Op-ed by Jared Blumenfeld : sfchronicle – excerpt
Keep Monsanto Roundup out of our city. We don’t want poison seeping into the ground water we are drinking.
…San Francisco defines “natural areas” as what remains of our city’s primordial landscape. These lands include diverse native habitats and species, like the Mission blue butterfly and San Francisco garter snake, that are found nowhere else on Earth. Today, these wild places remain fragile; their single biggest threat is invasive weeds…
For larger-scale natural-areas projects, a plan was required. Unfortunately, there has been a near glacial delay between the completion of a forward-thinking management plan, back in 2006, and that plan being blessed by the Board of Supervisors. Fortunately, today that wait could be over.
If you care about protecting San Francisco’s wild side, you can make a difference by speaking up at the supervisors’ meeting for the plants and animals that don’t have a voice. Dog walkers, tree lovers and environmentalists will all articulate reasons they want the Natural Areas plan to go away. As someone who falls into all three camps, I understand their frustration: It’s been an exhaustingly long and acrimonious process… (more)
This is a misleading editorial in that there is no mention of the details of the plan, that is to kill off most of the “non-native” species that have lived here and adapted to the area for decades and replant the “original” species of “natural native” plants that have not survived. This is NOT about preserving what is here now.
RELATED:
Carcinogen Warning Label on Roundup Weed Killer Coming to California
California can require Monsanto to label its popular weed killer Roundup as a carcinogen, according to a ruling by a judge in Fresno, California, although the corporation maintains that the product is harmless… What is Roundup and what is the problem with its chief ingredient, glyphosphate?…Environmentalists, consumer protectionists, and straightforward victims of glyphosphate-caused cancers and related poisoning object to Roundup’s principle ingredient, the odorless and colorless glyphosate, which was patented by Monsanto then marketed as early as 1974 to kill weeds but leave crops (apparently) intact…Glyphosphate is not only in Roundup! Monsanto lost patent protection on glyphosate in 2000, and a large number of herbicides now use it as an active ingredient, including OrthoGroundclear, KleenUp, Aquamaster, Sharpshooter, StartUp, Touchdown, Total Traxion, Vector, and Vantage Plus Max II… (more)
We encourage you to read the rest of the article for further details.
Is this going to be a repeat of the Soccer Fields? Environmentalists and others warned that the material planned for use on the soccer fields and other city parks is toxic, and especially harmful to young children based on prior evidence. Soon after the city approved the use of the toxic material, the state legislature up a halt on use of the product. How many times are city officials going to ignore the voices of scientists and environmentalists, and allow the purchase and application of toxic substances into our environment? Can we not find a less toxic means of dealing with weeds and unwanted plants?
This s particularly alarming now that we are mixing ground water into our drinking water. Everything that goes into the ground will end up in our drinking water. It is more important than ever to protect the ground water. There must be other ways to manage our parks and open space that does not require the use of toxic substances. City Hall should order those methods be used.
Grassroots Actions 